Obsidian: Do almost anything (really!) with system commands
This article shares how to execute system commands in Obsidian and display the results. This is extremely powerful as it quite literally allows you to do almost anything (…really). The technique works best on Linux and Mac as these systems come preloaded with many commands for manipulating text, working with files, interacting with content from the internet, and more.
After reading this article you will gain superpowers that will make you love working with Obsidian even more!
Also see:
- Obsidian: System Commands — Part 2
- Obsidian: Named Commands and Command History
- Obsidian: Parameterized Commands with Output sent to Clipboard or Displayed as a Notification
But first, a warning…
If you instruct your computer to do harmful things then it will do them. For example, delete all files in a folder. Be very careful not to run commands that will do damage! When in doubt, look up relevant documentation and test commands on a small sample of files. Also, keep backups of your work. I am not responsible for your actions or their consequences. Period.
Manipulating Text
Let’s start with ‘manipulating text’ as that’s the most frequent task you will be doing in a text editor.
Here’s the scenario… you’ve just pasted some text from the internet into Obsidian and now you have to reformat it. This may involve…